Two-dimensional intermittent search processes: An alternative to Lévy flight strategies

Abstract

Lévy flights are known to be optimal search strategies in the particular case of revisitable targets. In the relevant situation of nonrevisitable targets, we propose an alternative model of two-dimensional (2D) search processes, which explicitly relies on the widely observed intermittent behavior of foraging animals. We show analytically that intermittent strategies can minimize the search time, and therefore do constitute real optimal strategies. We study two representative modes of target detection and determine which features of the search time are robust and do not depend on the specific characteristics of detection mechanisms. In particular, both modes lead to a global minimum of the search time as a function of the typical times spent in each state, for the same optimal duration of the ballistic phase. This last quantity could be a universal feature of 2D intermittent search strategies.